St Nicholas, Swafield. http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/swafield/swafield.htm

Beheading of St John the Baptist, Trimingham. http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/trimingham/trimingham.htm

St Giles, Bradfield. http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/bradfield/bradfield.htm

St Peter and St Paul, Tuttington. http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/tuttington/tuttington.htm

@vannabartlett.bsky.social and I visited 7 churches in North Norfolk on yesterday's bike ride, recording fungi and invertebrates in their churchyards.

Here are 4 of them (Swafield, Trimingham, Bradfield & Tuttington - we also visited Gimingham, Southrepps & Suffield).

#Norfolk #Churches

The church of St Margaret, Suffield.

Spider plant in the holy water stoup at St Margaret, Suffield.

St Margaret, Suffield. Part of rood screen.

St Margaret, Suffield. Interior.

@vannabartlett.bsky.social and I visited 7 churches in North Norfolk on yesterday's bike ride, recording the fungi and invertebrates we found in their churchyards.

This is St Margaret, Suffield.

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/suffield/suf...

#Norfolk #Churches

A Holly Blue butterfly at rest on a gravel path in a churchyard.

First Holly Blue of the year at Gimingham church on yesterday's bike ride in North Norfolk with @vannabartlett.bsky.social.

We also saw our first Orange Tips of the year and (a rare sight these days) a Small Tortoiseshell, both near Trimingham.

#UKButterflies #Butterflies #UKWildlife

Mexico Senate: Ban Octopus Farms! Right now, in Mexico, octopuses are being crammed into barren tanks—trapped with nowhere to hide, circling endlessly as stress drives them to attack and even eat each other. Octopuses are some of the

Mexico Senate: Ban Octopus Farms! action.eko.org/a/mexico-sen...

Visiting Ranworth Church this am, following up a belated report of a new bee for Norfolk on iNaturalist by bhunt27, I quickly discovered a thriving colony of Osmia cornuta nesting in the south-facing wall of the church. Most nests are 3-5m up but a few were at head height.

Thanks.

@vannabartlett.bsky.social and I saw our first of the year too, at Gimingham church.

I found it today in two Norfolk churchyards. Maybe it's having a good year - though it's easy to miss. Will you record it? If not, I could add it to my monthly recording spreadsheet if you sent me details.

Thanks to your post I had a look on Pignut in three churchyards in North Norfolk today and found Puccinia tumida in two of them. Just eight previous Norfolk records, the last in 2021.

Pignut (Conopodium majus) infected with the rust fungus Puccinia tumida. The fungus mostly grows on the petioles of the leaves.

Pignut (Conopodium majus) infected with the rust fungus Puccinia tumida. The fungus mostly grows on the petioles of the leaves.

Pignut (Conopodium majus) infected with the rust fungus Puccinia tumida. The fungus mostly grows on the petioles of the leaves.

Very pleased to find the rust fungus Puccinia tumida on Pignut (Conopodium majus) in two churchyards on today's bike ride with @vannabartlett.bsky.social in North Norfolk.

It mostly grows on the petioles of the leaves.

Just three modern records in Norfolk until today.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Starmer should immediately & unequivocally ban access to British airspace to US warplanes. The UK should not be accomplice to a US President who is threatening more war crimes. Period.

Five ladybirds of various sizes; various colours, red, orange, yellow and brown, many with spots, all sitting on a pale canvas background.

An Arboreal Ladybird (Rhyzobius chrysomeloides), alongside 22-spot, 7-spot, 14-spot and 10-spot Ladybirds, all tapped out of an ever reliable Euonymus shrub in my Waltham Abbey garden today. #EssexWildlife #UKLadybirds

A pair of Dark-edged bee-flies (Bombylius major) making more Dark-edged bee-flies today at Cardiff's Grangemoor Park. #BeeflyWatch

Blair’s latest deceit-riddled column vilifies the UK left to justify genocide Britain former PM shows there’s no price to be paid for engineering mass slaughter in the service of western empire. Which is why those crimes not only continue, but grow in scale

jonathancook.substack.com/p/blairs-lat...

Five different aquatic hyphomycete spores dyed with aniline blue. Credit: Fay Newbery.

Fun with aquatic hyphomycetes: Fay Newbery's @fayrnhawk.bsky.social Field Mycology article is an engaging introduction to this understudied group of microscopic fungi, which break down plant material & prevent clogged waterways. See the treasures in river foam here: doi.org/10.63482/044...

Thanks, it was seen there in 2015 & 2017 but I hadn't managed to find it before.

Male Early Mining Bees (Andrena haemorrhoa) quartering the grass. Hairy-footed Flower Bees (Anthophora plumipes) with their high-pitched buzz. Small green metallic Lasioglossum (Lasioglossum morio) excavating in the earth & Yellow-legged Mining Bees (Andrena flavipes) @norfolknats.bsky.social

Pear blossom.

Pear blossom.

Pear blossom.

Pear blossom.

Pear blossom.

In the back garden today.

📢CALL FOR COLLABORATION📢

My PhD student Warre is looking for flies infected with #Laboulbeniales fungi. Especially Musca domestica!

If you have any, store in 96% ethanol or in the freezer, record on @inaturalist.bsky.social, and/or contact Warre.

#TeamLaboul #LFEE #LuminaQuaeruntur

And while we're on the subject of stunning wildflowers....Lamium purpureum (Red Dead Nettle), but I prefer Purple Archangel...

Two shoots of the liverwort, Diplophyllum albicans, under the compound microscope at around x100 total magnification. They have dark reddish-brown stems and green leaves. There are small, black spots on some of the leaves along with tiny open networks of brown, anastomosing hyphae.

A ruptured black-brown fruitbody of Bryobroma caudatum with two hyaline, globose immature asci emerging from it. The fruitbody is sitting on a fragment of leaf tissue with mycelium on top of it. Image at x1000 magnification.

Some ellipsoidal, hyaline ascospores beside a ruptured fruitbody of the fungus. One with a tail is indicated by an arrow.

The mycelium of B. caudatum and related species is formed of conspicuous brown hyphae that mostly grow on top of the anticlines of the host cells, occasionally forming tiny pin haustoria that penetrate the cell walls (not easily visible unless sections are made). The host cells cytoplasm is intact and the underlying cells are living, with chloroplasts and oil bodies. Image at x1000 magnification.

Nice to find good material of a tiny fungus, Bryobroma caudatum, on the liverwort Diplophyllum albicans yesterday. The fungus produces tiny fruitbodies up to only 75 microns diam. and spores with little tails. The distinctive mycelium forms a network over the host cell walls without killing them.

Female Small Sallow Mining Bee, Andrena praecox.

Nest holes of Small Sallow Mining Bee, Andrena praecox.

Small Sallow Mining Bee, Andrena praecox, at her nest hole.

Small Sallow Mining Bee, Andrena praecox, at her nest hole.

Small Sallow Mining Bee, Andrena praecox.

While eating lunch we found a small nesting aggregation in Hockering Wood, Norfolk, yesterday.

Identified by @vannabartlett.bsky.social.

bwars.com/bee/andrenid...

#SolitaryBee #Bees #UKWildlife

Ramularia urticae on a leaf of Common Nettle, Urtica dioica (upperside of leaf).

Ramularia urticae on a leaf of Common Nettle, Urtica dioica (underside of leaf).

Ramularia urticae on a leaf of Common Nettle, Urtica dioica (caespituli on underside of leaf).

Ramularia urticae - conidia (x1000, in water).

Ramularia urticae on leaves of Common Nettle, Urtica dioica.

Hockering Wood, Norfolk, yesterday.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Wood Sorrel, Oxalis acetosella.

Wood Sorrel, Oxalis acetosella.

Wood Sorrel, Oxalis acetosella.

Hockering Wood, Norfolk, yesterday.

#WildFlowerHour

A big piece of Beechmast Candlesnuff, Xylaria carpophila, on beech mast, held in my hand.

Beechmast Candlesnuff, Xylaria carpophila.

Hockering Wood, Norfolk, yesterday.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Sheathed Woodtuft, Kuehneromyces mutabilis. A clump on a mossy tree stump.

Sheathed Woodtuft, Kuehneromyces mutabilis. A clump on a mossy tree stump.

Sheathed Woodtuft, Kuehneromyces mutabilis. Two clumps on a mossy tree stump.

Sheathed Woodtuft, Kuehneromyces mutabilis. Picked fruitbodies.

Sheathed Woodtuft, Kuehneromyces mutabilis.

On tree stumps in Hockering Wood, Norfolk, yesterday.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa

Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa

Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa

Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa

Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa.

Hockering Wood, Norfolk, yesterday.

#WildFlowerHour

Anemone Cup, Dumontinia tuberosa.

Anemone Cup, Dumontinia tuberosa.

Anemone Cup, Dumontinia tuberosa, and Wood Anemone leaf.

Anemone Cup, Dumontinia tuberosa, and Wood Anemone leaf.

Anemone Cup, Dumontinia tuberosa.

Parasitic on Wood Anemone tubers (Anemone nemorosa).

Seen in Hockering Wood, Norfolk (at last!), yesterday.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Only three Norfolk records of P. primulae up to the end of 2025 and one more this March. I saw a few infected plants in Devon a couple of weeks ago in rather damp, shady areas but plants in sunnier places were unaffected.

Three European Fire bugs..two in copula, one hopeful...

Three's a crowd....